I totally agree with you. I originally started (a little reluctantly) consulting 12 years ago because we moved from a large city to the mountains so telecommuting-based consulting was a necessity, but now, I would not want to give up my independence. Also, as a consultant you can never lose your job if the economy gets a lot worse (although business can be lean). I have two business ideas I want to pursue, one at a time (one dealing with statistical NLP, and the other taking my old cookingspace app and revamping it more for mobile use for shopping and use in the kitchen).

I think that consulting is a great way to get varied experience, enjoy working with lots of different people, and have flexibility for working on side projects.